San Francisco's First Bike Park

Over the last 9 months, we’ve been working on Construction Documents for Phase 1 in various iterations from 50%, to 60%, 90% and we NOW have approval on the 100% complete set of Construction Documents. Each set has had it’s own added level of detail and gauntlet of meetings and approvals. This has been a long and detailed process for Theresa Zaro our landscape architect, Alpine Bike Parks, BKF Engineering, the MBP Founders and our partners at SFRPD. As you can see in the bid documents, the level of detail needed to build something like this in San Francisco is astounding.

Landscape Construction Plan – Phase 1 Bid Documents Page 3 of 13

Qualified contractors will submit bids in three weeks, and the winning bid will be presented to the SFPRD Commission for approval this fall. We hope to see construction begin in December, and last through March 2017. Stay tuned for official dates of the groundbreaking ceremony and tentative date for the Grand Opening!

Wall Ride detail – Phase 1 Bid Documents Page 9 of 13

Keep in mind, this is only phase 1, and constitutes about a fourth of the approved bike park site. Future phases will require another set of processes and funding, though the hope is that a completed phase 1 will create so much excitement, that future phases will move quickly.

Currently there is $10 Million dedicated to McLaren Park from the 2012 Parks Bond. We hope to secure a portion of this money for future phases of MBP. The San Francisco Recreation and Park Department has invited interested parties to attend the upcoming McLaren Park ProjectPlanning Workshop at 10am, Saturday October 1st. It will be held at the Group Picnic area at 116 John F. Shelley Drive to help prioritize the $10 million dollars. Please be sure to RSVP here, if you plan on attending: http://www.eventbrite.com/e/mclaren-park-project-planning-workshop-tickets-27198985899?aff=email82516

If you cannot attend, please consider filling out a very brief (less than 2 minutes) phone survey by calling 415.214.9358 Location 001 (in Spanish and Chinese too). For more information on the complete McLaren Park Project visit bit.ly/mclarenparkproject

Thanks to everyone who’s supported MBP. It’s been a long road, but we’re almost there!!!

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As Turkey Day approaches, the MBP project continues to gather momentum! Phase 1 has almost $1 million behind it, is in the Mayor’s budget for 2016, and is currently in Design Development!

In Design Development (DD) our concept drawings go through a process of vetting and refinement toward final construction documents which will ultimately go out to bid. It’s a long process of perfecting designs, working with engineers, collaborating with city departments and agencies, and our partners at SF Rec and Park. There are multiple stages of DD, and additional detail is added as we move toward 100% final documents.

At the current stage, the plans are at 50%, so will have much more detail added before we go to bid, and ultimately before we break ground. But, the basic layout and features are beginning to be solidified.

The biggest hurdle over the course of the last few years has been fundraising. There have been two main parts to our fundraising efforts:

1. CONSTRUCTION FUNDING

In 2008, we began building awareness, rallying the community, showing the need for a bike park, and gaining the support of SF Rec and Park. In 2012, we secured our location and won two grants totaling $500,000: The Community Opportunity Fund Grant for $250,000 and the Land and Water Conservation Fund Grant for another $250,000.

While pushing Phase 1 through approvals and getting official estimates, we came to a construction estimate of $934,000. Consequently, we went through a process of “Value Engineering” to bring our design and our funds in line. We removed a few features, cut some fat, narrowed our construction time and ultimately landed on a budget of just under $885,000.

Along the same timeline, we worked to raise funds to bridge a $385,000 gap between the construction estimate and our funding. To bring our funds and our budget together, the MBP Founders team worked with SFRPD to secure $300,000 in McLaren Park Quick Strike funding through the 2012 Parks Bond. SFRPD secured a Jumping Fences grant for $25,000. Supervisor John Avalos’s office also came through in a big way with a contribution of $30,000 in 2015, and another $50,000 allocated in the 2016 City Budget. Boom! Construction funding complete!

2. DESIGN FUNDING

To keep the design in the hands of the people and professional bike park builders, we looked to the community for support and created the MBP Founders. Donors of $100 or more secured a place for their names on the website, and on the plaque that will be displayed at MBP in Phase 1. Supporters and Founders of MBP have really stepped up and helped the project continue to move forward!

Designing for phase 1 has been a learning process for all involved. We have experienced, dedicated people on the MBP Founders team, but the inner workings of San Francisco are complex. We’re about to build the first official bike park within the city, so we’ve been pioneering this process, which takes time and a lot of patience.

As we work through the city’s processes, our total design costs will be just over $160,000. This not only includes bike park design from Alpine Bike Parks, but landscape architecture, engineering, storm water management, permits, grading plans, and lots of other necessary details.

The GREAT news is that we’ve raised over $135,000 for design to date!

$25,000 from the Hellman Foundation
$25,000 from Mr. and Mrs. Greg and Caroline Gretsch
$25,000 from the Mary A. Crocker Trust
$30,000 from the MBP DIG Fundraiser last Spring
$30,000 and counting, in MBP Founders donations

With this taken into account, we’re just $25,000 short of our design funding goal. These additional funds need to be raised by January 2016 to keep the design process moving and ultimately break ground in Fall of 2016.

To raise this money, we’re launching our last fundraising campaign for Phase 1, where organizations, brands and/or individuals can “sponsor” a picnic table or bench within MBP. Donors will receive a bronze plaque to be embedded in their park feature. If you’re interested in putting your name on a piece of history, San Francisco’s first bike park, email us here or send us a PM through Facebook. There are two picnic tables available and three benches.

Thank you all for your continued support. We continue to move forward to creating a bike park for the children of this amazing city, and setting a shining example Phase 2 of MBP, and ultimately for more bike parks in San Francisco!

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Last Sunday’s DIG fundraiser for McLaren Bike Park exceeded our expectations. Together, we raised $20,000 to get #morekidsonbikes in San Francisco.

We kicked off the event with a silent auction with tons of great merchandise from donors in the bike industry, San Francisco based companies, local businesses, photographers and even some donations from individual cyclists that wanted to support the cause.

Photo: Dustin smith

Upstairs, the Silent auction quickly filled up with the near sold-out crowd of over 150 attendees. After drinks, appetizers, bidding and lots of socializing, MBP supporters headed down to the dining hall for Dinner.

Shortly after the start of dinner, Irish Greg from KFOG’s morning show welcomed guests and turned over the mic to Dustin Smith, Chair of the MBP Founders. Dustin gave an emotional acknowledgement to the outpouring of support to the cause and the energetic crowd in attendance. Lisa Bransten from SF Rec and Park was invited up to say a few words and reiterated the commitment from SFRPD to make MBP a reality. Will Aldrich, MBP Founders Co-Chair graciously thanked everyone for their donations and attendance, and made it clear that this bike park is for the kids of San Francisco. The neighborhoods surrounding McLaren Park have the most kids in the city, and many that are at-risk. MBP would serve as a positive outlet for these kids… A place for exercise, mentorship, growth, and FUN!

Dustin and Will welcomed Greg Minnaar to the event and up to the stage for the highlight of the evening: A little Greg vs. Greg.

Irish Greg just happens to be a “Roadie” and For those of you who don’t know, Greg Minnaar is the three time UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Champion. The type of riding they do couldn’t be more different. Questions were written submitted by the crowd earlier. In addition to the Q & A, the two Gregs took bike-related jabs at one another causing laughs and whistles from the crowd. A few personal questions made it into the mix… Video to be released shortly.

Photo: Dustin Smith

The volunteers were incredible! They kept our plates full, drinks flowing and even kept it fun in the kitchen! After dinner, everyone headed back up to check out the MBP Plans and make their final bids on silent auction items.

There were a bunch of great photo prints from local photographers, and signed photos of Greg Minnaar riding in San Francisco.

Photo: Dustin Smith

Tons of great bike parts and components.

Photo: Dustin Smith

There was a nice selection of frames and bikes.

Photo: Dustin Smith

A little something for everyone.

The night wrapped up with the live auction and the signed warriors ball won by none-other than Phil Segura himself!

Words can’t express what a great night it was. We raised a good chunk of change for the park. But the most amazing part was the coming together of all these cyclists of all different wheel sizes to show their support for this amazing cause and the kids of San Francisco.

A big THANK YOU you everyone who touched this event!

Thank you to Lisa Bransten, Director of Partnerships at San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department for being there. Thank you to 3-time UCI Downhill Mountain Bike World Champion and GamutUSA athlete Greg Minnaar for the intimate Q&A with our fabulous host, Irish Greg from KFOG. Thank you to Chema Hernandez Gil from the SF Bike Coalition. Thank you to Nick from PODER SF. Thank you to Laurel Harkness, IMBA’s Director for Northern California, who made a special trip to attend our event.

Thank you to MBP Founders and rideSFO Events and their amazing volunteers for feeding us and helping our auction happen. Thank you to Naked Juice, 21st Amendment Brewery and New Belgium Brewing Company, and La Sombra Juice for keeping us hydrated. Thank you to Wing Wings for the Appetizers. Thank you to Elevation Bike Co., Intense Cycles, Roaring Mouse Cycles, Cult Crew, GoPro, Stance Socks, Strava, Gamut USA, Mash SF, UNIONMADE, Sports Basement, Leatt Protectives, WD-40, Rumpl Blankets, The Center Studio, and Barfly for their silent auction donations. Thank you to Tyler Gourley, Dwight Eschliman and Brian Slaughter for donating photographic prints. Thank you to all the generous donors to our fundraiser! And thank you Bermstyle for their great photos from the event.

When we started planning #MBPdig2015 we knew this was a project whose time had come. Your generosity has gotten us one big step closer to riding this bike park.

What’s NextThis week is big. On Thursday we’re meeting with Supervisor Avalos’ office to explore potential funding opportunities. On Friday we learn whether we’ve received a grant from the Mary A. Crocker Trust.

What you can doTag your photos with #MBPdig2015 and share them with us on Facebook and Instagram.
If you couldn’t attend, it’s never too late to donate.

We’re just a pedal stroke away from building San Francisco’s First Bike Park! Thanks again to all the attendees for coming out and showing their support!

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The McLaren Bike Park Founders have worked for over six years to bring a world class bike park to the kids of San Francisco’s southeastern neighborhoods. The SF Recreation & Parks Department has allocated just under 4 acres of land. City and neighborhood organizations have rallied to support the cause. So far, we’ve raised over $550,000 in grants, but need to raise additional funds for design.

Come have a blast, eat some great food, drink some drinks and help us close the funding gap!!! Attend the MBP DIG Silent Auction and Fundraiser, April 26th to benefit McLaren bike park. Buy Tickets here. If you can’t make the event, please donate here. With your help, kids of all ages will be riding in San Francisco’s first bike park as soon as Spring 2016!

But, most importantly, you’ll be supporting McLaren Bike Park with that last pedal stroke to breaking ground on Phase 1.

If you’ve got a chunk of cash, check out the naming opportunities to help fund the remaining phases of the park.

To help plan the the location of the features in the park to maximize the space and flow, Alpine Bike Parks, the designer of Valmont Bike Park is designing MBP, and has enlisted professional riders like Cam McCaul to help.

Now, we need your help if we want to keep the project on schedule and be riding Phase 1 in 2016!

If you really want a bike park in San Francisco, grab some tickets, tell your friends and come enjoy the evening.

Organized by The MBP Founders and RideSFO Events.

Go to our Facebook page for more event info. Contact: events@rideSFO.com or 415-553-8722 if you’d like to donate merchandise to the Silent Auction. Check out McLarenbikepark.com for more info on the project.

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Come have a blast, eat some great food, drink some drinks and get some great deals while mingling with the who’s who of the Bay Area cycling community.

Your tax-deductible ticket purchase gets you a seat at the table for appetizers, oven herb roasted chicken, pesto pasta, veggies, sides, dessert and beer. But most importantly, you’ll be supporting McLaren Bike Park with that last pedal stroke to breaking ground on Phase 1. Throughout the evening, attendees will have the chance to bid on some great merchandise, and experiences.

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We recently completed the conceptual design for Phase 1, and to help everyone envision the amazing potential of the completed park, we’ve been working with Alpine Bike Parks on the remaining phases.

To help understand how the park will flow, I got on the phone with Judd de Vall from Alpine Bike Parks, and he walked me through the design. Please refer to the image above, or click here for a detailed pdf of both phases as reference.

As Alpine has become more experienced and design more parks, they’ve realized that, in almost all cases, more users flock to a bike park than they would have originally imagined. So, they recognize the need to increase the carrying capacity of their parks. The design for McLaren Bike Park incorporates all of the knowledge they have their myriad of other bike park projects into a single, progressive design.

At the top of the hill, there will be a sizeable start mound for people to meet, greet, and watch the action.

The sections of the park are laid out so riders at different levels don’t feel too much pressure to perform outside their comfort zone(s) and also helps them stay out of potential conflict with other riders.

Just above the main start mound, there’s a smaller start pad that drops into the XC loop, Downhill trails and Slalom course. The XC trails are family friendly and weave through the eucalyptus grove ending at the finish corral.

The downhill trails will be highly technical and much more challenging. Riders will encounter large natural rocks that currently exist, and are designed into the natural landscape. The DH trails are short, so its important that they’re set up with very technical features to challenge riders and differentiate race times. Both trails pop out in the same place as the XC trails, but with a longer finish carral. Riders will also have the option to merge into the XL jump line consisting of three launch pads, and ending at the bottom just above the current phase 1 section. The goal of the DH course is to be a technical downhill style course, rather than all jumps. Tech features will be followed by smooth hard pack zones so riders would be able to get on the pedals and attack the next technical section with necessary speed.

The single slalom course is designed for many different styles of bikes. It will be ideal for fun, single or two-up, dual eliminator style racing with big berms, jumps and drops built in. An expert line with drops could be easily taped off for kids races, and the beginner line taped off for expert races.

The large, lower start mound will be an overlook and handicap accessible to the parking lot. Coming off that mound is an expert/pro pump track that will provide a great place for riders to warm up and practice advanced skills. It will be a mix of street and dirt, with many hidden lines, and very bmx oriented, though hardtail mountain bike riders will love it too.

Riders in the pump track will be able to bounce back onto the start mound, or go right into the slopestyle course.

In the slopestyle area, the trail closest to the return path is the easiest. Berms and hips flow into medium jumps, and converge on one merge point into the next larger set. The level of difficulty increases as you move upward and to the right.

Riders may choose to go straight over the hitching post into trick jumps down the middle, or far left into four, extra large lips into the corkscrew, then jump back over following riders.

The lower section will consist of a progressive levels of berms, jumps and table tops. Beginners will move up from the phase 1 pump track into this area, which will see a great deal of skill development as riders become ready to move up and into the more advanced features upward in the park including the slopestyle park.

This conceptual design, like phase 1, is tentative and will be further developed as we move into Design Development and when Construction Documents are developed. We love to hear from riders, so please feel free to comment here or on Facebook.